USPSTF suggests doctors talk to patients about tobacco use

(HealthDay News) -- The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommends that clinicians ask adults, including pregnant women, about tobacco use and provide interventions to help stop smoking. These findings form the basis of a clinical guideline published online Sept. 22 in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

Albert L. Siu, M.D., M.S.P.H., from the USPSTF, and colleagues updated recommendations on counseling and interventions to prevent tobacco use and tobacco-related disease in adults, including pregnant women. The recommendations apply to adults aged 18 years and older.

The USPSTF recommends that clinicians ask about tobacco use, advise adults to stop using tobacco, and provide behavioral interventions and pharmacotherapy for smoking cessation (grade A recommendation). For pregnant women, the USPSTF recommends that clinicians ask about tobacco use, advise about stopping tobacco use, and provide behavioral interventions for cessation (Grade A recommendation); for pregnant women, the evidence is insufficient to weigh the balance of benefits and harms of pharmacotherapy for tobacco cessation (I statement). With regard to electronic nicotine delivery systems, the USPSTF concludes that the evidence is inadequate to support their use for tobacco cessation in adults, including pregnant women.

"Smoking cessation is tough, but clinicians and patients have a variety of evidence-based interventions to choose from," USPSTF member Francisco Garcia, M.D., M.P.H., said in a statement. "Clinicians should ask their patients if they smoke and work together to determine the most appropriate way to help them quit."